Learn more about Ellie in The Last of Us’ ‘Left Behind’

14. Jan, 2014

Throughout the adventure of The Last of Us we watched as a teenage girl, Ellie, grew into a mature, brave young woman. The game briefly touched on her childish side, but those moments were few and far between; we never got to meet the real Ellie. Thankfully, we will have the opportunity to change that with the up-coming story-based DLC for The Last of Us – ‘Left Behind‘. In ‘Left Behind‘ we will be able to meet the “real Ellie”.

In a recent interview with the PlayStation Blog, Ashley Johnson, voice of Ellie, sat down to discuss the prequel to one of the best games of 2013.

“You kind of get to meet the real [Ellie],” Johnson says, “You’ll definitely see a more playful side to Ellie and get to know her a bit better. You’re going to see a lot of different sides to the character that you definitely didn’t see in The Last of Us. I’m excited for people to experience it!”

In ‘Left Behind‘ Ellie will be joined by her best friend Riley, Yaani King, as they live in a military school in one of the quarantine zones. Though there is constant danger around them, Ellie and Riley will find time to be children. “It’s a little bit more “fun,” because you have two teenage girls going through a mall. It’s kind of like a post-pandemic version of two teenage girls hanging out. Definitely not a normal hangout! It’s very different — a little more playful.”

After the events that happened in The Last of Us, it couldn’t be that easy for Ashley to just forget about what has happened to Ellie and return her to a more childish person. “It was a bit of a challenge to set aside everything we’d gone through, but when Yaani got on board she was just so fun and so silly that it sort of brought out my own kid-like tendencies, too,” Johnson said, “It was perfect. It’s so significant to the story because Riley is her best friend — this is a really important side of Ellie that people need to see.”

Now that Ashley is the season veteran of the video game acting scene, it was her time to be the teacher to Yaani, just as Troy was to her during The Last of Us. Though she was nervous about the process of having someone new to work with, she believes that it helped in the end. “But I think that helped in a way, as it felt like I was doing something new. There was a little insecurity there — “Troy’s not here and he’s the master of this!” — but I think that actually helped in some ways because I’m playing the younger version of Ellie who has her own insecurities as a teenage girl.”